WEBVTT 00:00:03.846 --> 00:00:08.534 I got a question for you have you ever felt that God's calling you to do something? 00:00:08.534 --> 00:00:12.243 I mean, he's giving you a burning passion to do something. 00:00:12.243 --> 00:00:16.330 Maybe it's a move. 00:00:16.330 --> 00:00:22.928 I know when God called my wife and I to move up here nine years ago, it was definitely a call. 00:00:22.928 --> 00:00:30.589 It was a passion that was driven more than just the beautiful area of Knoxville, but there was a reason we needed to move. 00:00:30.589 --> 00:00:32.173 Maybe it's a new job. 00:00:32.173 --> 00:00:35.485 Maybe it's a change in your career. 00:00:35.485 --> 00:00:38.414 Maybe it's to join a ministry. 00:00:38.414 --> 00:00:40.201 Maybe it's to start a community group. 00:00:40.201 --> 00:00:43.048 Maybe it's to join a community group. 00:00:45.034 --> 00:00:53.640 There are times in our lives that God's going to place within us a strong desire to move in a certain direction, and how much we all know it's for his glory. 00:00:53.640 --> 00:00:56.406 Right, that's when he gives us this passion. 00:00:56.406 --> 00:01:03.588 There's an interesting scripture in Ephesians, chapter 2, verse 10, that says for we are his workmanship. 00:01:03.588 --> 00:01:06.852 Notice there's a possession here his. 00:01:06.852 --> 00:01:17.540 We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. 00:01:17.540 --> 00:01:34.289 If we take that scripture for face value, that means that God has prepared for you and me things that he wanted us to do and wants us to do, and is going to empower us and anoint us to do all for His glory. 00:01:34.289 --> 00:01:45.004 And when he calls us and makes us followers of Jesus Christ, we just have to realize that that's part of the package. 00:01:45.004 --> 00:01:48.311 He's going to call us to do things. 00:01:48.311 --> 00:01:53.146 There are very few Christians that sit on the bench. 00:01:53.146 --> 00:02:01.605 We're not called to sit on the bench, but following His leading can be difficult at times, right, we know that. 00:02:01.605 --> 00:02:09.663 But there's nothing more sweet than being where God wants you to be, regardless of how difficult it is. 00:02:09.663 --> 00:02:23.229 Enter Nehemiah Last week we began a sermon series, as Tyler mentioned, on the Old Testament book of Nehemiah, and we've called it the Passion Project. 00:02:23.893 --> 00:02:34.246 And the more I've thought about this name, the more I love it, because, truly, god ignited a passion deep inside of Nehemiah to do something very, very difficult. 00:02:34.246 --> 00:02:36.873 Kelly, kicked off this series, did a great job. 00:02:36.873 --> 00:02:46.260 He titled his first sermon A Plea for Divine Help, and it was great because the first chapter of Nehemiah, divine help. 00:02:46.260 --> 00:02:50.454 And it was great because the first chapter of Nehemiah, the majority of it, is recorded in Nehemiah's prayer to God, and it was wonderful. 00:02:50.454 --> 00:02:52.682 He also gave us a little bit of a backdrop into Nehemiah. 00:02:52.682 --> 00:02:55.700 I'm going to do a little bit more of that today too, just in case you miss that. 00:02:55.700 --> 00:03:05.853 And, by the way, if you miss a sermon, I really highly recommend you go back, and especially a sermon that started everything off, because it really sets the tone for everything else. 00:03:05.853 --> 00:03:08.868 So, if you missed the sermon, put up your hand. 00:03:08.868 --> 00:03:12.085 No, I'm just kidding, we already know that. 00:03:12.085 --> 00:03:15.645 We know everything. 00:03:15.645 --> 00:03:25.286 But seriously, I really recommend that you watch it or listen to it online, because it would set up a lot of. 00:03:25.286 --> 00:03:29.691 It was just a great setting for the whole message going forward, the whole series. 00:03:31.039 --> 00:03:41.150 Well, we're going to pick up the story in Nehemiah, chapter 2, and we're going to read about Nehemiah's conversation with King Artaxerxes, right, and then we're going to read about him going to Jerusalem. 00:03:41.150 --> 00:03:52.419 We're going to read about him examining the wall, running into some opposition and then rallying the people to begin the process of building the wall. 00:03:52.419 --> 00:03:56.866 And I've entitled this a vision expedition faith in action. 00:03:56.866 --> 00:04:06.128 Faith in action Because within this chapter, we're going to see five lessons about faith and action that's played out by Nehemiah himself. 00:04:06.128 --> 00:04:16.781 And I am telling you and I told this to the prayer group before the prayer team I said you know, it's almost cheating when you read a chapter like this. 00:04:16.781 --> 00:04:18.809 It's like that's the sermon, the whole. 00:04:18.809 --> 00:04:27.269 It was just right there and these are just beautiful points, and my prayer is that these lessons are going to encourage all of us as we follow the calling God has given us. 00:04:28.011 --> 00:04:28.851 So you guys ready for this? 00:04:28.851 --> 00:04:30.634 Well, let's do it. 00:04:30.634 --> 00:04:44.406 I'm going to give you a little bit more historical setting to this, just in case you missed some of the stuff that was covered by Kelly last week, because it's really important that you wrap your head around where we're at and what's going on. 00:04:44.406 --> 00:04:57.233 So the whole setting is the kingdom, of course, of Persia and, as we know from Kelly, we've got a slave, nehemiah, who's a slave to King Artaxerxes. 00:04:57.233 --> 00:05:03.660 Jerusalem, by the way, had fallen to Babylon almost 160 years earlier, in 606. 00:05:03.660 --> 00:05:05.779 And we have a little timeline up here for you to look at that. 00:05:06.442 --> 00:05:15.187 And, of course, when a conquering nation would conquer another nation, they would take a lot of them back into their country, into their nation. 00:05:15.187 --> 00:05:19.021 Why, well, they wanted to acculturate them, they wanted to make them part of us. 00:05:19.021 --> 00:05:20.925 We want to turn them into basically our own citizens. 00:05:20.925 --> 00:05:24.632 We want to turn them into basically our own citizens. 00:05:24.632 --> 00:05:29.062 But, of course, they were captives, they were called exiles. 00:05:29.062 --> 00:05:35.874 Well, the Babylonian kingdom fell to Persia around the reign of King Cyrus in 539 BC. 00:05:35.874 --> 00:05:41.858 And now the exiles were transferred from Babylonian exiles and now they're Persian exiles. 00:05:41.858 --> 00:05:46.786 Right so you're a slave, doesn't matter who you're exiles right so you're a slave, doesn't matter who, you're serving somebody, right? 00:05:46.786 --> 00:05:59.569 Soon afterwards, though, in 536, the Persian king Cyrus decreed that a portion of the exiles could go back to Jerusalem, and this, by the way, is all documented in Ezra, the book of Ezra. 00:06:00.839 --> 00:06:05.548 20 years after that first group was sent back, the rebuilding of the temple was completed. 00:06:05.548 --> 00:06:07.312 That was in 516. 00:06:07.312 --> 00:06:10.990 And now we're picking up about 58 years after that. 00:06:10.990 --> 00:06:13.848 We are now here with Nehemiah. 00:06:13.848 --> 00:06:18.211 Now, nehemiah, born in captivity. 00:06:18.211 --> 00:06:20.786 He'd never been to Jerusalem. 00:06:20.786 --> 00:06:29.048 That's important, by the way, because, you might like, we went to Australia with our oldest daughter when she graduated, or, excuse me, new Zealand. 00:06:29.048 --> 00:06:30.230 We went to New Zealand. 00:06:30.230 --> 00:06:31.321 I've been to New Zealand. 00:06:31.321 --> 00:06:32.182 I want to go back. 00:06:32.182 --> 00:06:38.641 It's a burning passion for me, although the plane trip down, that's not a burning passion for me. 00:06:38.641 --> 00:06:40.165 But it was beautiful, right, but he'd never been there. 00:06:40.165 --> 00:06:43.129 But it was beautiful, right, but he'd never been there. 00:06:43.129 --> 00:06:53.052 He'd never been there before, right, but he had this burning passion to go. 00:06:53.112 --> 00:06:58.485 He was born in captivity but, by the way, he was probably a pretty intelligent person, he was probably pretty smart. 00:06:58.485 --> 00:07:04.083 He might have been pretty good looking, and you want to know why. 00:07:04.083 --> 00:07:08.144 I know that and I wrote this in my notes, because the king doesn't surround himself with doofuses. 00:07:08.144 --> 00:07:12.132 Can I say doofus from stage? 00:07:12.132 --> 00:07:12.894 It's okay. 00:07:12.894 --> 00:07:28.125 No, it was really typically something that kings would do is they would surround themselves with the highly intelligent, the comely very beautiful people from the ones that he'd taken exile. 00:07:28.125 --> 00:07:30.571 Daniel was a great example of that right. 00:07:30.571 --> 00:07:32.745 We read that as, for example, goes. 00:07:32.745 --> 00:07:39.865 He was the king's cupbearer and he had an unusually close relationship with the king himself and we're going to talk about that. 00:07:40.365 --> 00:07:48.209 He was obviously very burdened when this delegation came back from Jerusalem, told him what was happening and the walls were broken down. 00:07:48.209 --> 00:07:50.749 But it wasn't just the walls that were broken down. 00:07:50.749 --> 00:07:57.745 The spirit in the hearts of the people that were there that had come back, that was broken as well. 00:07:57.745 --> 00:08:00.389 And he just got this burden on him. 00:08:00.389 --> 00:08:03.067 He just felt so burdened. 00:08:03.067 --> 00:08:09.329 I'm sure those same people told a lot of other people, but for some reason Nehemiah was burdened and we know the reason. 00:08:09.329 --> 00:08:10.692 Of course, god put that in him. 00:08:10.692 --> 00:08:14.105 He praised that very passionate prayer again. 00:08:14.105 --> 00:08:22.165 Wonderful message last week and God gave him this burden to go back and rebuild the wall. 00:08:23.028 --> 00:08:32.610 So with that as a background, let's jump into Nehemiah 2 and let's understand and see these five lessons of walking in faith and faith in action. 00:08:32.610 --> 00:08:35.503 So let's start in verse 1 of Nehemiah 2. 00:08:35.503 --> 00:08:39.432 In the month of Nisan, by the way, it's Nissan. 00:08:39.432 --> 00:08:40.214 It's not Nissan. 00:08:40.214 --> 00:08:46.426 That's about March or April, by the way, of our calendar. 00:08:46.426 --> 00:08:47.850 It's funny. 00:08:47.850 --> 00:08:50.363 I remember I first read that it's like it's missing an S. 00:08:51.865 --> 00:08:58.610 In the 20th year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was before him remember he was the cupbearer I took the wine and gave it to the king. 00:08:58.610 --> 00:09:07.091 Now I had not been sad in his presence and the king said to me why is your face sad? 00:09:07.091 --> 00:09:08.734 Seeing you are not sick? 00:09:08.734 --> 00:09:12.086 This is nothing but sadness of the heart. 00:09:12.086 --> 00:09:15.033 Then I was very much afraid. 00:09:15.033 --> 00:09:21.384 Now you might say what's going on here? 00:09:21.384 --> 00:09:31.056 Isn't it kind of strange that a pagan king cares about a slave? 00:09:31.056 --> 00:09:32.844 I mean, think about it. 00:09:33.860 --> 00:09:38.152 The more I read this, the more I thought this was a really unusual relationship. 00:09:38.152 --> 00:09:39.481 But do you remember? 00:09:39.481 --> 00:09:48.741 A lot of times, from here we talk about God's sovereignty, from here we talk about God's sovereignty. 00:09:48.741 --> 00:09:56.095 Do you not think that God sovereignly placed within our exerces a connection with Nehemiah, because he knew what he was going to call Nehemiah to do? 00:09:56.095 --> 00:10:00.168 So there was this deep relationship here which is he could. 00:10:00.168 --> 00:10:05.610 Literally, nehemiah didn't say anything, he just saw that something was different in Nehemiah's countenance. 00:10:05.610 --> 00:10:12.428 If you've been married for any length of time, your wife might come up to you and go what's wrong? 00:10:12.428 --> 00:10:13.652 Nothing. 00:10:13.652 --> 00:10:15.985 Usually it's the other way around. 00:10:15.985 --> 00:10:23.880 I understand that, because they can read our face right, they know they can see something's not right, what's going on. 00:10:24.182 --> 00:10:25.804 Well, that's what King Artaxerxes did. 00:10:25.804 --> 00:10:30.493 So he really somehow had a deep relationship with Nehemiah. 00:10:30.493 --> 00:10:31.894 That was pretty special. 00:10:31.894 --> 00:10:36.865 And Nehemiah, he said, I was very much afraid. 00:10:36.865 --> 00:10:41.552 Why? 00:10:41.552 --> 00:10:43.495 Why would he be afraid? 00:10:43.495 --> 00:10:48.701 Why, why would he be afraid? 00:10:48.701 --> 00:10:57.600 Well, I'll tell you why he's afraid Because he had a burden and he had a passion, and now he had an opportunity and it was risky, it was very risky. 00:10:57.600 --> 00:11:02.489 Do you realize that Artaxerxes could do? 00:11:02.489 --> 00:11:05.474 You're gone that quick? 00:11:05.474 --> 00:11:09.548 He had the power to put him to death. 00:11:09.548 --> 00:11:15.692 He had the power to take this vision and this mission that God had given him and to crush it. 00:11:17.321 --> 00:11:25.011 And that really leads to our first lesson of faith, and that is, taking a step of faith often means you're going to take a risk. 00:11:25.011 --> 00:11:27.505 You're going to take a risk. 00:11:27.505 --> 00:11:36.033 Slaves don't ask their masters for favors, especially big favors. 00:11:36.033 --> 00:11:43.587 Nehemiah knew what he was called to do, but he also knew that he had a risk that he was going to have to take. 00:11:43.587 --> 00:11:44.870 And he took it. 00:11:44.870 --> 00:11:53.221 And that's really the application. 00:11:53.221 --> 00:11:54.003 The application is so obvious for us. 00:11:54.003 --> 00:11:58.961 When God gives you a passion for something and calls you to step up and face faith, it almost always means you have to take a risk. 00:11:58.961 --> 00:12:03.269 How many people here can put their hand up and say amen to that? 00:12:03.269 --> 00:12:06.836 Yeah, there's a risk. 00:12:07.918 --> 00:12:10.083 Think about the Bible and just think about some of the examples. 00:12:10.083 --> 00:12:13.230 Moses he's out there. 00:12:13.230 --> 00:12:17.567 He's got a nice flock of sheep, he's got a nice wife, he's got a good father-in-law. 00:12:17.567 --> 00:12:25.510 He's doing great Burning bush Come on, by the way, take your sandals off. 00:12:25.510 --> 00:12:33.791 By the way, I want to send you to the king of Egypt and you need to ask him to release his entire workforce. 00:12:33.791 --> 00:12:37.500 Yeah, risky, yeah, maybe right. 00:12:37.500 --> 00:12:39.365 How about Abraham? 00:12:39.365 --> 00:12:42.172 He was told to leave his whole homeland to go. 00:12:42.172 --> 00:12:45.226 How about the disciples? 00:12:45.226 --> 00:12:47.981 The chosen is really interesting when you see them. 00:12:47.981 --> 00:12:53.282 It's interesting how they portray people being called and it's just like drop the nets and go. 00:12:53.282 --> 00:12:56.086 There was a risk involved. 00:12:58.071 --> 00:13:00.460 The apostle Paul was the one that really hit me here. 00:13:00.460 --> 00:13:06.351 He is the champion of the ruling religious class, the Pharisees. 00:13:06.351 --> 00:13:16.807 He was their champion, he was the one that went out there, he was the equalizer and all of a sudden he's now their mortal enemy and they're trying to kill him. 00:13:16.807 --> 00:13:18.493 It's a risk. 00:13:18.493 --> 00:13:21.701 I think of even Tyler and Amy. 00:13:21.701 --> 00:13:28.553 When you guys came up here you've told the story before they felt that God was bringing them up here. 00:13:28.553 --> 00:13:31.666 No job, he's pastoring, no job. 00:13:31.666 --> 00:13:33.971 He just came and served the church. 00:13:33.971 --> 00:13:38.735 He trusted God because he knew the burden God had given him and he came. 00:13:38.735 --> 00:13:40.865 It was a risk. 00:13:40.865 --> 00:13:47.086 I'm sure you had lots of conversations about that before that happened, but God is there. 00:13:49.860 --> 00:13:56.288 One of the most encouraging passages about someone who was called to take a huge step of faith is found in Joshua, chapter 1. 00:13:56.288 --> 00:14:08.466 Most of you know, of course, joshua was called to lead the people into the promised land, these wonderfully cooperative Israelites into the promised land, these wonderfully cooperative Israelites into the promised land. 00:14:08.466 --> 00:14:15.543 And, by the way, he knew it was going to be a very dangerous and a very bloody task. 00:14:15.543 --> 00:14:22.010 He was going to be outnumbered almost always, sometimes multiple times over. 00:14:22.010 --> 00:14:25.655 But listen to what God said to Joshua. 00:14:25.655 --> 00:14:27.625 It's so encouraging. 00:14:28.480 --> 00:14:35.951 In verse 5 of chapter 1, god says no man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. 00:14:35.951 --> 00:14:39.590 Just as I was with Moses, so will I be with you. 00:14:39.590 --> 00:14:42.509 I will not leave you or forsake you. 00:14:42.509 --> 00:14:54.700 Be strong and courageous, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them. 00:14:54.700 --> 00:14:57.567 You might say, well, yeah, but God never told me that. 00:14:57.567 --> 00:15:07.823 Well, a lot of times he does, and he does through validating the calling that you've got in many different ways. 00:15:07.823 --> 00:15:13.710 If God's given you a passion and a burden that requires you to take a step of faith, it will almost always be accompanied by risks. 00:15:13.710 --> 00:15:26.000 However, you must understand if he calls you to it, he's going to take you through it, because it's not for your glory, it's for his All. 00:15:26.000 --> 00:15:28.124 Right, let's keep going. 00:15:28.144 --> 00:15:34.115 Verse four and the king said to me what are you requesting, knees shaking, what are you requesting? 00:15:34.115 --> 00:15:36.504 And I love what it says. 00:15:36.504 --> 00:15:38.269 So I prayed to the God of heaven. 00:15:38.269 --> 00:15:46.833 This was probably one of those really quiet prayers, you know, like when your child first comes and he says where do babies come from? 00:15:46.833 --> 00:15:49.668 Oh God, please give me the strength and give me the right words. 00:15:49.668 --> 00:16:07.365 Or when you run across somebody, like the other day, somebody confronted me about something, about my beliefs, and it was a little bit tricky, and I literally just I took a breath and no, I'm saying God, give me the right words to say to this person. 00:16:07.365 --> 00:16:11.581 You have all said that type of a prayer, short, to the point. 00:16:11.581 --> 00:16:12.724 God heard. 00:16:12.724 --> 00:16:14.047 Well, that's what he did here. 00:16:15.208 --> 00:16:26.139 And I said to the king if it pleases the king and if your servant has found favor in your sight, that you send me to Judah, to the city of my father's graves, that I might rebuild it. 00:16:26.139 --> 00:16:29.307 And the king said to me the queen sitting next to him. 00:16:29.307 --> 00:16:31.852 You ever wonder why that was about. 00:16:31.852 --> 00:16:34.745 Why would they say the queen was sitting next to him? 00:16:34.745 --> 00:16:36.250 Maybe the queen liked him too. 00:16:36.250 --> 00:16:38.768 Maybe the queen was like come on, let the guy go. 00:16:38.768 --> 00:16:39.249 I don't know. 00:16:39.249 --> 00:16:40.253 It was just interesting. 00:16:40.253 --> 00:16:43.804 How long will you be gone and when will you return? 00:16:43.804 --> 00:16:46.201 Because somebody's got to drink wine for me, right? 00:16:46.201 --> 00:16:49.910 So it pleased the king to send me when I'd given him a time. 00:16:49.910 --> 00:16:52.703 I always wondered what time did he give him. 00:16:52.703 --> 00:16:56.320 You know, remember that wall was built in a pretty short time. 00:16:56.320 --> 00:16:59.183 Maybe he had to hit that deadline. 00:16:59.183 --> 00:17:25.671 And I said to the king if it pleases the king, let letters be given me to the governors of the province beyond the river which is beyond the river Euphrates, by the way, that they may let me pass through until I come to Judah and a letter to Asaph, the keeper of the king's forest, that he might give me lumber to make beams for the gates of the fortress, of the temple and for the wall of the city and for the house that I shall occupy. 00:17:25.671 --> 00:17:33.290 And the king granted me what I asked for the good hand of my God was on me. 00:17:35.601 --> 00:17:40.891 We see the second lesson of faith here, and that faith in action often requires having a plan. 00:17:40.891 --> 00:17:46.189 And Kelly preached that sermon last week about all the prayer. 00:17:46.189 --> 00:17:49.781 Okay, think about this. 00:17:49.781 --> 00:17:54.990 You think all that prayer that he was praying was just the prayer. 00:17:54.990 --> 00:17:59.346 I think God was not only answering his prayer and giving him a vision. 00:17:59.346 --> 00:18:01.791 I think God was giving him a plan. 00:18:01.791 --> 00:18:06.490 Have you ever been praying something and you just feel like God's telling you to do this? 00:18:06.490 --> 00:18:08.306 Oh, come on God. 00:18:08.446 --> 00:18:18.432 No, literally, I'm almost positive that he had already planned this out, because he very succinctly told Artaxerxes what he wanted. 00:18:18.432 --> 00:18:29.055 I always laugh when I think about the story of Abraham trying to stop the God from destroying Sodom and Gomorrah. 00:18:29.055 --> 00:18:31.547 Right, and he keeps saying, well, what if there's 50? 00:18:31.547 --> 00:18:32.390 What if there's 25? 00:18:32.390 --> 00:18:35.326 But literally he was pushing the limits. 00:18:35.326 --> 00:18:37.652 But there were limits God had given him. 00:18:37.652 --> 00:18:39.223 He had a plan. 00:18:39.223 --> 00:18:41.730 He knew what he was going to need. 00:18:41.730 --> 00:18:47.652 He knew he was going to need the written approval from Artaxerxes or it wouldn't work. 00:18:47.652 --> 00:18:53.512 He knew he was going to need materials to build this wall and the gates especially. 00:18:53.512 --> 00:19:00.987 In fact, he says specifically I need access to the forest and I need wood, and we all know what the price of wood is. 00:19:00.987 --> 00:19:06.049 Right, but he knew all this and he asked for it. 00:19:06.049 --> 00:19:10.426 He had a plan and plans are important. 00:19:11.059 --> 00:19:22.746 And I will tell you, from an application standpoint, a lot of people and I've been kicking around the kingdom for a while there's a lot of people that God gives them a passion and they love what. 00:19:22.746 --> 00:19:29.671 They just feel this is what God wants me to do and they just start running and I applaud them for running. 00:19:29.671 --> 00:19:39.742 But a lot of times they run into walls because they forget that sometimes you have to plan to carry out the mission that God's given you. 00:19:39.742 --> 00:19:49.726 He's given us good brains, he's given us the ability to think, and we know he's going to give us the ability and tell us how we're going to go about doing that. 00:19:49.726 --> 00:19:53.621 If God's calling you to teach, okay. 00:19:53.621 --> 00:20:01.222 If anybody here is feeling that God's calling you to teach, that means you first must learn right. 00:20:01.222 --> 00:20:08.115 If God's calling you to lead, then you need to learn how to lead. 00:20:08.115 --> 00:20:12.644 But so many times we just want to do it. 00:20:12.644 --> 00:20:15.472 Well, I just feel God's calling me to the ministry. 00:20:15.472 --> 00:20:17.724 So where do I get ordained? 00:20:17.724 --> 00:20:19.568 Oh, wait a second. 00:20:19.568 --> 00:20:20.551 It doesn't work that way. 00:20:20.551 --> 00:20:22.835 Well, it does sometimes, and then that's usually a disaster. 00:20:22.835 --> 00:20:23.359 It doesn't work that way. 00:20:23.359 --> 00:20:26.740 Well, it does sometimes, and then that's usually a disaster. 00:20:26.740 --> 00:20:29.338 You follow where I'm going with this. 00:20:29.338 --> 00:20:31.343 You need to prepare yourself. 00:20:31.343 --> 00:20:42.063 He was prepared for Artaxerxes to say yes, and he knew exactly what to say and what to ask for. 00:20:42.083 --> 00:20:44.185 I think of the early church when it comes to this. 00:20:44.185 --> 00:20:49.031 When I was just preparing this, I thought about when they encountered the issue with the widows. 00:20:49.031 --> 00:20:51.796 You remember that the widows were being neglected. 00:20:51.796 --> 00:20:58.289 The church was growing just astronomically and some of the widows weren't being neglected. 00:20:58.289 --> 00:20:59.573 Some were, and it was all this stuff. 00:20:59.573 --> 00:21:03.481 So what did the apostles do? 00:21:03.481 --> 00:21:04.564 They came up with a plan. 00:21:04.564 --> 00:21:07.887 I'm sure they prayed about it, but they came up with a plan. 00:21:07.887 --> 00:21:09.549 I'm sure they prayed about it, but they came up with a plan. 00:21:09.549 --> 00:21:14.455 And the plan, by the way, the creation of a deaconship is still happening today. 00:21:14.455 --> 00:21:17.404 It happens in our church. 00:21:17.404 --> 00:21:19.730 They came up with a plan and they followed the plan. 00:21:19.730 --> 00:21:25.034 They didn't just say God, please take care of those widows, they took action. 00:21:25.034 --> 00:21:28.282 They had a plan and it's really important. 00:21:28.282 --> 00:21:34.930 Now I will tell you that our plans should always be subject to God and his adjustment and realignment. 00:21:34.930 --> 00:21:37.992 Sometimes our plans are somewhat humorous to God. 00:21:38.773 --> 00:21:41.896 And I came across this clip and I just want to show you. 00:21:41.896 --> 00:21:49.787 It's a clip from the Chosen, but it's got a little bit of a twist. 00:21:49.787 --> 00:21:54.132 So watch the screen really carefully, we'll see. 00:21:54.132 --> 00:21:58.336 Show me Impressive. 00:21:58.336 --> 00:22:02.902 That is something. 00:22:02.902 --> 00:22:11.375 But there's something didn't see that coming. 00:22:11.375 --> 00:22:15.290 I love that clip. 00:22:15.339 --> 00:22:16.803 This was Simon the zealot. 00:22:16.803 --> 00:22:18.185 I should have set this up. 00:22:18.185 --> 00:22:20.471 This was Simon the Zealot. 00:22:20.471 --> 00:22:21.352 I should have set this up. 00:22:21.352 --> 00:22:22.615 This was Simon the Zealot. 00:22:22.615 --> 00:22:34.703 He had just begun following Jesus and he thought he was called to be Jesus' bodyguard, and so he proudly said look at this knife and you saw what happened. 00:22:34.703 --> 00:22:45.109 So, yeah, sometimes God says, yeah, nice, try, but we're going to try this again and we're going to, and that's okay, but it doesn't mean we shouldn't plan. 00:22:45.109 --> 00:22:53.300 Right, god's going to fine-tune that plan and sometimes he'll throw them away and give you another one, but he's going to guide us in that. 00:22:54.304 --> 00:22:58.136 All right, let's move on to the third point Nehemiah, chapter 2, verse 9. 00:22:58.136 --> 00:23:01.987 Then I came to the governors of the province beyond the river. 00:23:01.987 --> 00:23:03.830 So he's gotten everything he needs. 00:23:03.830 --> 00:23:08.929 Now he's already left, so there's a big space and time here, right, and gave them the king's letters. 00:23:08.929 --> 00:23:14.740 Now the king had sent me with the officers of the army and horsemen which was, by the way, that was like an armed guard. 00:23:14.740 --> 00:23:15.501 That's pretty cool. 00:23:15.501 --> 00:23:17.666 He had his own secret service, it looks like. 00:23:18.710 --> 00:23:19.932 But when Sanballat? 00:23:19.932 --> 00:23:23.548 I have never run across a child named Sanballat. 00:23:23.548 --> 00:23:25.992 We have a lot of women pregnant in here. 00:23:25.992 --> 00:23:32.267 You want Sanballat, maybe no, okay, maybe not. 00:23:32.267 --> 00:23:36.087 The name always cracks me up every time I heard it. 00:23:36.087 --> 00:23:41.070 Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite servant heard this. 00:23:41.070 --> 00:23:47.743 It displeased them greatly that someone had come to seek the welfare of the people of Israel. 00:23:48.807 --> 00:23:55.445 In this section we see the third lesson, and that is faith in action will almost always encounter opposition. 00:23:55.445 --> 00:24:00.255 The reason I'm hearing amens is because they've been through that. 00:24:00.255 --> 00:24:06.151 Sanballat and Tobiah were regional governors serving the Persian empire. 00:24:06.151 --> 00:24:14.248 Remember this it's a vassal state, right, everybody was working for the boss, right, sanballat was a governor of Samaria and they think Tobiah was. 00:24:14.248 --> 00:24:15.330 He was an Ammonite. 00:24:15.330 --> 00:24:18.589 He was probably the governor of an area east of the Jordan River. 00:24:18.589 --> 00:24:23.124 So these were pretty high officials, even though they were slaves. 00:24:23.124 --> 00:24:23.644 They were. 00:24:23.644 --> 00:24:25.407 They were conquered people. 00:24:25.407 --> 00:24:28.241 Why were they against this? 00:24:28.241 --> 00:24:37.865 Well, there's a reason why they were identified as an Ammonite and a Horonite Because these were conquered people. 00:24:37.865 --> 00:24:42.549 These were people that Israel had conquered when they took over the promised land. 00:24:42.549 --> 00:24:46.190 I think I understand why they don't like Israel. 00:24:47.781 --> 00:24:50.009 It was pretty apparent why they didn't like him. 00:24:50.009 --> 00:25:02.309 It was in their best interest to keep the Jews from unifying, as they knew that the building of the wall would essentially be a huge step towards the Jews regaining their identity as a people. 00:25:02.309 --> 00:25:04.824 They knew this. 00:25:04.824 --> 00:25:11.631 By the way, if you ever wonder, why did Artaxerxes let them go back and build a wall? 00:25:11.631 --> 00:25:17.932 Well, remember who occupied Jerusalem the Persians. 00:25:17.932 --> 00:25:24.547 If they want to go, build the wall for the Persians, so the Persians can protect their you know their space. 00:25:24.547 --> 00:25:25.148 Sure, go ahead. 00:25:25.148 --> 00:25:40.101 So it's not like Artaxerxes was worried about them, you know rebelling or anything although you'll hear later on that that's something that Tobiah tried to and Sanballat tried to accuse them of. 00:25:40.101 --> 00:25:40.362 Right. 00:25:40.362 --> 00:25:54.441 But if the Jews were strengthened, these people would be weakened, and you're going to see these guys throughout the rest of the book because they're going to constantly try to come against them. 00:25:55.223 --> 00:25:58.070 The application is pretty straightforward when you think about this. 00:25:58.070 --> 00:26:07.843 When God places a passion in us to do something for him, that means it's something opposite for Satan, and Satan will not be happy. 00:26:07.843 --> 00:26:10.988 He will not be happy. 00:26:10.988 --> 00:26:15.174 How many of you have ever heard the name William Booth? 00:26:15.174 --> 00:26:17.082 William Booth? 00:26:17.082 --> 00:26:22.773 Well, william Booth founded the Salvation Army back in England in 1877. 00:26:22.773 --> 00:26:25.605 Salvation Army does a lot of great things. 00:26:25.605 --> 00:26:34.388 My mother, by the way, who's in her late 80s, still serves at the Salvation Army in our little town in Saskatchewan. 00:26:34.388 --> 00:26:38.470 She used her walker because she had a hip replacement. 00:26:38.470 --> 00:26:40.723 The shelves aren't right. 00:26:40.723 --> 00:26:43.330 Unless my mother gets a hold of them, she sets it all up. 00:26:43.330 --> 00:26:46.951 But they do wonderful things and they've been going ever since. 00:26:48.339 --> 00:26:59.928 But did you know that when he started the Salvation Army, there was a huge opposition from I mean from the press, from the government, from the clergy. 00:26:59.928 --> 00:27:11.590 They wrote terrible things about him because he had a different way of spreading the gospel and it was offensive to some of these people who said, no, it's supposed to be done this way. 00:27:11.590 --> 00:27:15.446 And he had a son, by the way, named Bramwell. 00:27:15.446 --> 00:27:17.531 Now there's another idea for name Bramwell. 00:27:17.531 --> 00:27:21.224 You don't hear enough Bramwells out there. 00:27:21.224 --> 00:27:23.489 Well, his son's name is Bramwell. 00:27:23.489 --> 00:27:29.607 And his son came to him one time and said Dad, what do you think about all the stuff they write about you? 00:27:29.607 --> 00:27:31.573 And this is what he said. 00:27:31.573 --> 00:27:32.884 I thought this was so wise. 00:27:32.884 --> 00:27:35.452 He said Bramwell, 50 years hence. 00:27:35.614 --> 00:27:39.023 It will matter very little indeed how these people treated us. 00:27:39.023 --> 00:27:42.972 It will matter a great deal how we dealt with the work of God. 00:27:42.972 --> 00:27:47.507 It will matter a great deal how we dealt with the work of God. 00:27:47.507 --> 00:27:51.314 When you face opposition, realize that it's just opposition. 00:27:51.314 --> 00:27:54.817 God's the one behind you. 00:27:54.817 --> 00:27:58.974 Push forward. 00:28:02.400 --> 00:28:04.464 In 1 Thessalonians 2, verse 17 through 18, this is what we read. 00:28:04.464 --> 00:28:16.903 But we brethren, having been taken away from you for a short while in person, not in spirit, we're all the more eager, with great desire to see your face, for we wanted to come to you, I Paul, more than once. 00:28:16.903 --> 00:28:19.266 Yet Satan hindered us. 00:28:19.266 --> 00:28:28.902 This is a chorus that would be echoed time and time and time and time and time again till today, and it's still going to be echoed. 00:28:28.902 --> 00:28:32.931 Satan will hinder you from doing God's work. 00:28:32.931 --> 00:28:40.482 He will do anything he can, but what he doesn't understand and he's supposed to be so clever, he just doesn't understand that. 00:28:40.482 --> 00:28:41.906 That just makes us stronger. 00:28:42.749 --> 00:28:44.873 You want to know where the church is really growing. 00:28:44.873 --> 00:28:47.327 It's the place where it's persecuted. 00:28:47.327 --> 00:28:49.846 It's persecuted. 00:28:49.846 --> 00:28:56.230 Satan is a defeated foe, but he will not go quietly into his fate. 00:28:56.230 --> 00:29:02.428 If you're truly doing something that God has called you to do, you almost always will be attacked by the enemy. 00:29:02.428 --> 00:29:08.833 But we're told through Scripture and a lot of you know these scriptures we're supposed to resist those attacks. 00:29:08.833 --> 00:29:17.480 We put on the armor of God to protect us from that and we don't lose sight of what God's called us to do. 00:29:17.480 --> 00:29:19.501 Expect it. 00:29:20.162 --> 00:29:27.326 This is the thing that really blows me away sometimes is when someone says this is the thing that really blows me away sometimes is when someone says man, I started doing this ministry and it's just not going well. 00:29:27.326 --> 00:29:29.126 I'm like good. 00:29:29.126 --> 00:29:32.664 They're like what I said. 00:29:32.664 --> 00:29:36.510 That's good, because Satan's coming after you Now. 00:29:36.510 --> 00:29:38.278 It doesn't mean that sometimes you don't. 00:29:38.278 --> 00:29:41.740 Maybe it's your own fault, you're doing something wrong, but you get the idea. 00:29:41.740 --> 00:29:43.634 This morning it was funny. 00:29:43.634 --> 00:29:45.180 I came in here all ready for this sermon. 00:29:45.180 --> 00:29:51.696 We have electrical issues in the place, these lights are out, these lights are out and all this and we're going back and forth. 00:29:51.696 --> 00:29:55.357 And I kind of stopped with the guys we were back in there. 00:29:55.357 --> 00:29:56.540 I said you know what? 00:29:56.540 --> 00:29:59.407 With the guys we were back in there, I said you know what? 00:29:59.407 --> 00:30:07.602 God's the master, electrician, let's just pray and we're having church Opposition's going to come, but you just keep your focus. 00:30:07.602 --> 00:30:09.471 Alright, let's move to point four. 00:30:09.471 --> 00:30:13.590 We're going to read five verses here, beginning in verse 11. 00:30:14.574 --> 00:30:17.040 So I went to Jerusalem and was there three days. 00:30:17.040 --> 00:30:24.622 Then I arose in the night, I and a few men with me, and I told no one what my God had put into my heart to do for Jerusalem. 00:30:24.622 --> 00:30:28.839 There was no animal with me but the one on which I rode. 00:30:28.839 --> 00:30:34.282 I went out by night by the valley gate to the dragon spring and to the dung gate. 00:30:34.282 --> 00:30:36.416 Wouldn't want a house by the dung gate, would you? 00:30:36.416 --> 00:30:42.599 And I inspected the walls of Jerusalem that were broken down and its gates that had been destroyed by fire. 00:30:42.599 --> 00:30:53.038 Then I went to the fountain gate and to the king's pool and there was no room for the animal that was under me to pass and it means the debris was so bad he couldn't even get over. 00:30:53.038 --> 00:31:16.160 Then I went up in the night by the valley and inspected the wall and I turned back and entered by the valley gate and so returned and the officials did not know where I had gone or what I was doing and I had not yet told the Jews, the priests, the nobles, the officials and the rest who were to do the work, meaning I didn't tell the people that were going to be doing all this work what we were going to be doing. 00:31:16.160 --> 00:31:16.275 It was kind of funny. 00:31:16.275 --> 00:31:17.535 I didn't tell the people that were going to be doing all this work what we were going to be doing. 00:31:17.535 --> 00:31:23.269 It was kind of funny. 00:31:23.349 --> 00:31:30.973 We can see that Nehemiah is exhibiting the fourth lesson of faith in action, and that is wisdom, wisdom. 00:31:30.973 --> 00:31:39.969 You can have a plan, you can take the risk, but you have to have the wisdom to move forward in that, isn't it interesting. 00:31:39.969 --> 00:31:41.515 Here's this man with all this passion. 00:31:41.515 --> 00:31:42.577 He gets to Jerusalem. 00:31:42.577 --> 00:31:48.541 Man, my bag wouldn't have even hit my bed and I'd be going out looking at that wall and making my plans. 00:31:48.541 --> 00:31:51.270 He spent three days doing nothing. 00:31:52.313 --> 00:31:54.696 I really think what he was trying to do is just keep a low profile. 00:31:54.696 --> 00:32:01.796 He was just laying low Because obviously you know Sanballat Tobiah they were after him already. 00:32:01.796 --> 00:32:03.922 He just let things lay low. 00:32:03.922 --> 00:32:20.400 He did his inspection at night so no one would see him, and he only went to a certain portion of the wall, by the way, and this was the area closest to the temple, and so he was probably just looking at that area specifically. 00:32:20.400 --> 00:32:24.320 But he only took three people with him, didn't want to bring a lot of attention to him. 00:32:24.320 --> 00:32:33.298 He was using wisdom when fulfilling what God had called him to do, and the application is pretty straightforward for us. 00:32:34.170 --> 00:32:37.681 When God's called you to do something, yeah, you make your plans. 00:32:37.681 --> 00:32:38.760 Yeah, you take the risk. 00:32:38.760 --> 00:32:39.249 Yeah, you take the risk. 00:32:39.249 --> 00:32:49.537 Yeah, you realize there's going to be opposition, but you should do this with wisdom, and wisdom sometimes can come directly from God. 00:32:49.537 --> 00:32:52.530 Sometimes God's going to give somebody else that wisdom. 00:32:52.530 --> 00:33:02.071 I love when I hear people this has happened before somebody come to me and I'm planning to do this and I start asking the questions and they've already thought it through. 00:33:02.071 --> 00:33:04.157 They've gotten counsel from people. 00:33:04.157 --> 00:33:08.478 They have a plan and, even though God might change it, they have a plan. 00:33:08.478 --> 00:33:13.221 They're using their smarts, they're using their brains and that's what's so important. 00:33:13.221 --> 00:33:24.421 You know, when Jesus says in Matthew 10, 16, to be wise as serpents and as harmless as doves, that wise part is really important. 00:33:24.421 --> 00:33:31.768 A lot of times we just want to be harmless, but we need to be wise and smart. 00:33:31.768 --> 00:33:34.713 Use our noodle. 00:33:34.713 --> 00:33:35.916 God's given it to us. 00:33:35.916 --> 00:33:37.319 Let's use wisdom. 00:33:37.319 --> 00:33:41.751